Typically, individuals have access to a multitude of user accounts associated with the personal and business aspects of their lives. Such accounts may include, but are not limited to, bank accounts, credit accounts, electronic mail (“email”) accounts, telephone accounts, insurance accounts, and other accounts associated with goods or services utilized by an individual. Individuals may access their accounts to obtain information about the current status of their account. For instance, an individual may access a bank account to determine their current balance or to view recent activity associated with the account. Individuals may also access their accounts to perform a variety of functions. For instance, a user may access an email account to send an email to a colleague or access an online customer account to purchase goods or services.
Many user accounts include mechanisms for account authorization in order to prevent account access by unauthorized individuals. For instance, a user may be required to provide a correct username and password combination before accessing an account. In some cases, security mechanisms that protect user accounts may impose limits on the number of authorization attempts for a particular account. For instance, after a certain number of incorrect authorization attempts, access to the user account may be locked. In many cases, locking access to a user account in this manner may prevent fraudulent individuals from gaining access to an account through brute force techniques, such as repeatedly attempting different username and password combinations until a match is found.
While the system and method for preventing large-scale account lockout is described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the system and method for preventing large-scale account lockout is not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed. The intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the system and method for preventing large-scale account lockout as defined by the appended claims. Any headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used herein, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.